Many modern directory assistance systems use a computer aided directory assistance search arrangement. In such systems, when an operator has found an apparently correct listing, the operator signals the identity of the correct listing and the listing is then automatically announced to the calling telephone customer. At the calling party's option, a connection is then set up between the calling customer station and a customer station identified by the listing.
A problem encountered in offering directory assistance service is that callers can only reach customers with non-published numbers by persuading a directory assistance supervisor that an emergency exists. Even in the absence of an emergency, however, certain classes of customers with an unpublished number might, under certain circumstances, be receptive to receiving directory assisted calls. By way of illustration, the election of a cellular telephone subscriber to have a non-published number is typically motivated less out of a concern for privacy than as a simple expedient to avoid the air-time charges for which he or she will be billed when receiving such calls. Other customers, such as those who have just relocated to a new city and state, may be willing to accept calls from certain calling areas--such as those in the vicinity of the customer's past and present residence, as indicated by the area code of the calling party, for example--with the assumption that calls from any other area are from solicitors and other parties with whom the customer does not wish to speak.